An Analysis of Employer Requirements of University Graduates

Acta Polytechnica Hungarica Vol. 13, No. 5, 2016

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An Analysis of Employer Requirements of

University Graduates

Tünde Tóth-Téglás1, Erika Hlédik

2, Laura Fónadová

3

1 Óbuda University, Faculty of Business and Management, Tavaszmező utca 17,

H-1084 Budapest, Hungary; [email protected]

2 Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Economic and

Social Sciences, Műegyetem rkp. 3, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary;

[email protected]

3 Masaryk University Brno, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Lipová

41a, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic; [email protected]

Abstract: It is of equally outstanding importance for university graduates and universities

alike to learn what requirements workplaces have of graduates and what knowledge and

skills they are expected to have. Previous research in Hungary conducted by GVI MKIK

and DPR examined employer and higher education graduate views based on the

importance of expected competencies. In our research we focused on understanding

employer requirements related to the recruitment of graduates. Therefore, we examined the

opinions of companies that assumingly had a conscious strategy for employing graduates,

and we carried out comprehensive analyses of the findings of comprehensive research. Our

research findings reveal that the large companies surveyed assigned primary importance to

competencies ensuring present performance; at the same time, the aspect of competencies

enabling future performance also emerged as relevant. It was also analysed in our study to

what extent the companies surveyed had different requirements of economic and technical

graduates. The research furthermore explored with the help of factor analysis in what ways

the respective competency requirements were interrelated in the employers’ approach.

Although our research was conducted among Hungarian companies exclusively, we believe

that the findings related to the role of corporate size and field of specialisation may

generate conclusions of interest for research carried out in other countries as well.

Keywords: workplace requirements; competencies; skill requirements; graduate

recruitment process

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

T. Tóth-Téglás et al. An Analysis of Employer Requirements of University Graduates

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1 An Analysis of Employer Requirements of

Graduates

Understanding what requirements workplaces have of graduates, what knowledge

and skills they are expected to have is extremely important for university

graduates and universities. Previous research in Hungary conducted by the

Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research of the Hungarian Chamber of

Commerce and Industry (GVI MKIK) examined employer views based on the

importance of expected competencies. One of the main findings of this research

was that the demand for higher education graduates in the technical field is more

significant than that of graduates in the field of economy. The research showed

that the most important competencies appeared to be precision, self-reliance, high

work endurance, ability to work in teams and ability to achieve goals. Our

research focuses on understanding employer requirements related to the

recruitment of graduates. We examined large companies, who have a conscious

strategy for employing graduates. As previous research shows there is a difference

on the demand side, therefore our aim was to investigate whether there exists a

difference also in the competency requirements toward technical and economic

higher education graduates.

1.1 The Higher Education and the World of Work

Considering the significant changes apparent at the labour market as well as the

growing efforts aimed to improve the quality of ‘graduate output’, understanding

labour market requirements has become an important field of study recently.

Szabó and Hámori point out that “at the information age, companies undergo

constant transformation and reorganization, their strategy and organization are

both flexible.” [26] The trends experienced in economic transformation,

globalisation, networking, the emergence of new technologies and the changes in

consumer habits generate rearrangements in the form and content framework of

the world of work as well. Researchers conducting career tracking surveys on

graduates in the European region formulate these changes the following way:

“While traditional organisations regarded employee care as a basic value, today’s

workplaces rather expect their employees to have a kind of responsible and self-

caring attitude and make efforts in order that their employees identify with the

organisation’s values and goals.”[9] In the ‘looser’ relations of work performance,

the emphasis is on task performance, which requires of employees greater

independence, fast response, pro-activity and flexible adaptation and significantly

“influences the value and contents of the competencies necessary”. [13]

In the system of changing environmental factors, companies re-interpret their

recruitment and training strategies as well. There is no clear formulation of

employer requirements of employees, either, making up for which shortcoming

can be regarded as a task which is a key to future success. In the technical


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literature on management, McClelland examines, based on his definition of

competency, the relationship between workforce proficiency and employer

requirements by researching into the criteria ensuring successful work

performance. [18] In a labour market undergoing a transformation as an effect of

economic and social changes, the interpretation of success criteria can be

interpreted as a relationship dynamically changing both on employers’ and

employees’ sides. [16] Employers constantly look for the personal abilities and

knowledge that ensure the implementation of their strategic plans both in the short

and long run. [4] On the other hand, the ‘competency set’ of an organisation,

which determines the company’s performance, is also influenced by the

employees’ proficiency, motivations and competency mismatches. [1]

Accordingly, the practice of competency management is based on the broad-scale

and regular communication of the company’s management, HR specialists and

employees, in the course of which the specification of recruitment criteria and

training goals and the elaboration of employee assessment factors are based on the

formulation of current and future employer competency requirements that support

serving the strategic goals.

Some employees find it easier, others more difficult to adapt to the requirements

that are new or under transition. “Technological change generates a conflict

between the demand for and the supply of competencies.” [9] The salary

differences emerging between high and low skilled employees draw attention to

the fact that “the demand for high skilled workforce has emerged in the economy.

Inequalities in remuneration are rooted in the fact that the supply side is unable to

keep pace with the needs of the demand side.” [9] Cedefop’s European skills and

jobs (ESJ) survey pointed out that “skill mismatch” might be one of the reasons

why employers are unable to fill vacancies, despite the high level of

unemployment in certain areas. [3] Skill mismatch is “the gap between the skills

required on the job and those possessed by individuals”. [3] This gap may be

caused partly because of the increase in company expectations or changes in job

requirements observed in the labour market. [10] On the other hand, the gap

between required and possessed competencies may have its roots in imperfect

information about job opportunities, but also in individual educational and skill

shortage or underlying problems of higher education. [17] The role of higher

educational institutions is essential, as it is shown in research conducted by

Hungarian institutions, there is a gap between theoretical oriented practice of

universities and the practice oriented requirements of the labour market. [8]

This process generates new tasks for institutions preparing graduates. Based on the

educational implications of EU 2020 strategy [6], the initiative “Agenda for new

skills and jobs” aims to increase the match between the labour market supply and

demand side by supporting life-long learning and skills development. [19]

Interpreting education as a value creating process, its task is to ‘deliver’ the

competencies required by society and the labour market. “It is increasingly

through this that the content requirements and achievements of studies are


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monitored and developed in higher education.” [15] The concept of competency

was used in pedagogy in a different interpretation before (discussed in Tóthné

Téglás [31]), but there is a shift from this interpretation of competence towards

interpretation used management practice in order to understand better the

expectations of labour market. In this context the process of learning is

approached from the direction of the achievements attained [11] [29] [30] [12],

and various learning and carrier building opportunities are available for students.

[14] [21] In such an output approach, institutions make efforts to learn about

labour market requirements following a pull strategy and aim to train graduates

employable in the labour market. [2]

Correspondence between the level and field of studies and the requirements of a

position can be examined by identifying under and overqualified areas, assessing

learning skills and measuring to what extent students are prepared for future tasks

as well as the performance of indeterminable, innovative tasks. [28] From the

beginning of the 2000’s the international graduate career tracking system research

(CHEERS, REFLEX, HEGESCO) focused on the identification of general

competencies essential in the rapidly changing environment and the contribution

of higher education. In those research projects the role of competencies, too, was

examined among factors determining professional success. Even though no factors

were found to have outstanding effects, it could be concluded as regards to

competencies, that they primarily influenced the subjective elements of work. [22]

In the international graduate career tracking system research, the examination of

workplace requirements measures the necessary and the acquired levels of

competency based on fresh graduate’s opinions several years after their entry to

work. As the further development of previous research, the Tuning project carried

out by cooperating European universities “initiated a series of consultations at the

European level with employers, higher education graduates and university

lecturers participating in order to determine the competencies considered to be of

key importance for a higher education degree.” [16] The main finding of this

research was that there were distinctive differences between graduate’s and

employer’s responses although the correlation between the competencies

considered most important was high (r = 0.9).

The role of competency assessment in higher education research is to implement

education better adjusted to labour market needs. Differences in the interpretation

of competency in pedagogy and management made the compilation of

competency lists applied in competency research difficult. As an effect of

employer requirements, both cognitive and non-cognitive elements determining

success at work have been included in the range of competencies assessed in the

research. [16] A uniform competency model generally accepted in the respective

fields is not available either in higher education research or in management;

several approaches can be applied. [31] [23] The criteria for outstanding

performance in a given position can be investigated by examining the

characteristic features of the people filling the positions or by considering the


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skills and knowledge required to fulfil the tasks. These correspond to what are

referred to as the income and outcome approaches to competencies. [32] [27] The

competency models can differ in what components they consider important.

Applying the income approach, American models emphasise personal and social

skills, while in the British approach using the outcome approach of competencies,

the role of functional skills is underlined. The models worked out in the course of

developing German technical training complemented personal and social

competencies by professional and methodological/learning competences. [32]

Accordingly, various competency lists can be found in the research that makes it

more difficult to compare results.

1.2 Hungarian Research Findings

Labour market requirements of graduates can be examined on the basis of

employer views or the experience of fresh graduate entrants. In what follows, we

summarize the findings of research conducted in Hungary. The Institute for

Economic and Enterprise Research of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and

Industry (GVI MKIK) set out to survey the current situation and changes of the

demand side, i.e. the labour market, within the framework of which they have

made several surveys of the characteristics of the current and future employment

of graduates among Hungarian enterprises since 2005. Research conducted by

GVI MKIK in 2008 and 2011 (herein after GVI 2008 and GVI 2011) examined

employer views also on the basis of experience from recruitment process and the

importance of expected competencies. [33]

Figure 1

Competency requirements as perceived by graduates with a higher education degree and employers’

actual competency requirements based on research by GVI 2011 and DPR2010 [16] [33]


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Considering research focusing on issues related to the quality of fresh graduate

output, national graduate career tracking system research (hereinafter DPR)

conducted by Educatio Social Services Nonprofit Ltd. analyses the opinion and

the workplace experience of persons who graduated a few years ago and have

already entered the labour market. In their research programme, they primarily

examine the roles of socio-demographic, motivational, institutional and field-

specific features in the process of transition from higher education to the world of

labour. Building on experience from the international Tuning-project, the

comprehensive graduate career tracking system research conducted in Hungary in

2010 (hereinafter DPR 2010) complemented the study of workplace adjustment, in

addition to examining qualifications, by examining the competencies required for

the scopes of work, with the aim to measure adjustment in a more complex way.

[16] Thus, the DPR 2010 research surveyed the requirements perceived by

employees on the basis of the workplace experience of graduates of various fields,

ranking the importance of the respective competencies as experienced in their

work. In the next section we summarize the finding of this research (DPR 2010,

GVI 2011) because since then this research has not measured competencies.

The DPR 2010 domestic research conducted with a high number of subjects

(N=4511), surveying the opinions of graduates who had graduated three years

before and had already entered the labour market, and the employer surveys

performed by GVI MKIK in 2008 (N=3200) and repeated in 2011 (N=1313) give

an opportunity for the comparison of the views of the two sides. [16] [33]

The research findings recorded by GVI in 2011 revealed a radically different order

of preferences compared to three years before. Examining the values on the same

scale as the one used for the categories in DPR 2010, research participants

evaluated the importance of competencies along a much wider span than before

(the lowest mean value being 2.8 and the highest 4.75), which may indicate that

they perceived preferences more precisely. Requirements having become clearer

is also reflected by the fact that the corporate preferences shown in 2011 reflected

a much similar picture as the views of graduates interviewed in 2010 (DPR 2010).

When arranging data into quartiles, the most important competencies appear to be

precision, self-reliance, high work endurance, ability to work in teams and ability

to achieve goals (Figure 1). The second quartile includes competencies related to

professional proficiency, practical experience and learning. Interestingly,

innovation skills, entrepreneurial spirit and foreign language skills, which could

be key factors amidst the changing economic requirements to future success, were

ranked among less important competencies. Considering this it can be assumed

that the emergence of clear requirements can in fact be attributed to a temporary,

but strong appearance of self-sustaining functions related to the economic crisis. It

is with language skills that the opinions of employers and graduates differ to the

greatest extent; graduates regard it even less decisive for their work than

employers. At the same time, awareness of social issues, entrepreneurial spirit and

written communication skills were competencies regarded less important by


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employers, while graduates ranked these requirements higher than the actual

requirements placed upon them.

In the DPR 2010 research, the competency categories of the Tuning project were

applied for the sake of comparability. On the basis of a person-oriented income

approach, the thus applied categories formulate basic skills deducible from the

original arrangement of the competencies. In the course of the analysis examining

the co-occurrences of young graduates’ responses revealed by factor analysis, the

20 competencies used in the research, displaying a relatively clear structure, were

arranged in four dimensions accounting for 49% of the variance on the whole. [16]

Abilities and skills related to self-reliant work performance and contact

maintenance were assigned in the Cooperation factor. The second, Instrumental-

cognitive factor includes the use of technical devices and basic cognitive

competences (writing, reading, computation) and, even though assigned medium

weight, the knowledge of foreign languages was also put into this category

according to respondents’ opinions. Entrepreneurial spirit and openness towards

innovation were categorised under the third factor, Social initiatives. The fourth

factor of Professionalism includes theoretical and practical professional

proficiency and the ability to develop these.

As a way of summary, the domestic DPR 2010 research outlined above explored

the competency requirements perceived by graduates, while in the analyses

performed by GVI, the ranking of importance of requirements placed upon fresh

graduates was made on the basis of corporate opinions. In our own research, we

also examined corporate requirements of graduates in the case of technical and

economic employees. At the time the data were recorded for our research, the

research findings of GVI 2011 were not yet known so we were unable to use the

experience; therefore, we used the research findings retrospectively for our

comparative analysis.

2 Corporate Survey

2.1 Objective and Methodology of the Survey

In our survey we examined the opinion of the demand side through a relatively

narrow corporate group, also narrowing the field included in the survey. We

examined the workplace requirements of primarily large companies actively

recruiting fresh graduates from technical and economic fields. Our research

findings created opportunity for examining new aspects: the differences according

to corporate size and fields of specialisation. We focused on the HR

representatives who participate in job fairs, because we believe that they have

clear ideas about requirements for fresh graduates to meet, and have the

appropriate insight into corporate requirements of graduates. It can be assumed


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that companies exhibiting at a job fair have a conscious concept on the recruitment

of graduates, have requirements in place and await fresh graduates with adequate

recruitment and training programmes. For this reason, we believe that we

managed to reach an important target group from the point of view of our

research since we were able to address companies actively looking for graduates

and explore their views.

We narrowed down our focus to two segments of graduates namely technical and

economic fields, because according to KSH in 2012 most of the tertiary graduates

belong in these two segments (38%). They reasonably face and in future will have

to face more competition while seeking for job. Our analysis of the arrangement of

competency requirements delivered findings that prove interesting especially in

comparison with the findings of the DPR 2010 research.

Our primary research was conducted at the Faculty of Business and Management

of Óbuda University (hereinafter OE). The aim of our research was to explore

workplace requirements of economic and technical graduates. In the OE survey,

we interviewed the HR representatives of companies at 4 job fairs held in the

Central Hungarian region (in Kecskemét, Gödöllő and 2 in Budapest: organised at

Óbuda University and by HVG Publisher respectively) with the help of

interviewers1. Considering that there was convenient sampling, our findings

cannot be regarded as representative considering company size or ownership

structure in Hungary. On the other hand, we believe we managed to reach an

important segment in term of our research (HR representatives participating in job

fairs, who have clear requirements for fresh graduates).

In our research we sought responses to the following questions:

1) What requirements do companies actively looking for graduates have of

graduates? What are competencies of outstanding and of lesser importance?

2) How are competency requirements arranged in the respondents’ ways of

thinking?

3) Do corporate requirements of technical and economic graduates differ?

In the first part of the questionnaire, we asked about the characteristics of the

respondents’ companies and the recruitment procedures applied by them. Based

on the findings of the GVI 2011 research, companies attribute several advantages

to employing graduates. According to two thirds of the companies participating in

their research, young people bring new spirit and new ideas to the company, they

are easy to shape, they become most valuable work force in the medium run

already and take on more workload. [32] We therefore regarded it as important to

first of all examine for what positions the companies exhibiting at job fairs look

1 Students Enikő Kardos and Lajos Barcza performed the interviews within the

framework of their activities in the Scientific Student Association.


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for graduates. We also wanted to know to what extent companies are conscious in

shaping their requirements in the recruitment process of graduates and whether

they used competency-based recruitment tools. According to research conducted

in Northern Hungary, the practice of large multinational companies is

characterised by conscious and planned training activity. [20] Considering that

corporate training and recruitment are systems closely built upon one another, it

could be assumed that the organisations of respondents, most of whom belonged

to corporate circles, used consciously designed and shaped procedures for

determining recruitment criteria and implementing the recruitment procedure.

Based on the list of competencies presented in the second part of the

questionnaire, we asked respondents to mark the importance of competencies

expected with reference to the positions concerned on a 7 point Likert scale. The

competencies used in the research were formulated according to the categories

generally used in education. We designed our competency list based on Sonntag &

Schaffer-Rauser’s model [7]. This competency model includes professional,

methodological, social and personal skills as well, so, similar to DPR research, it

examines cognitive and non-cognitive competencies alike. Based on the

competency categories of this model, we finalised the list by consulting researcher

and experts of this topic at the university. We add new competencies compared to

the competency lists used in earlier research, which we judged could be important

in scopes of work performed by higher education graduates. These included

among others ethical behaviour and demand for multidisciplinary knowledge.

In the questionnaire we asked respondents to evaluate separately requirements

towards graduates having technical and economic qualifications in order to

understand the differences in the competencies required. Our original sample of

respondents was 98 companies, but owing to deficiencies in filling in some of the

questionnaires, the final number of questionnaires that could be processed was 88.

Considering that respondents could make the competency evaluation with

reference to the positions to fill, we were able to use 111 work scope evaluations

when analysing the competency evaluations, of which 73 referred to positions

requiring technical and 38 requiring economic qualifications. The data were

analysed with the help of the SPSS 19 programme package.

2.2 Characteristics of the Companies Participating in the

Survey

We aimed to address companies actively looking for graduates. 78% of the

companies participating in the research liked to employ graduates, out of which

48% said that they very much liked to recruit graduates. Companies do not only

look for trainees at job fairs; 92% of the responding corporations employed

graduates full-time. At the same time, internship and trainee programmes are

popular as well: 53% of the companies interviewed advertised such positions.

These positions offered excellent opportunities to graduates and assumed, on the


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companies’ part, a conscious and planned workforce asset training programme by

which the company prepared for its future workforce demand by recruiting

talented young people. 18% of the respondents looked for graduates for temporary

employment, which could be either genuine temporary demand or often served as

a trial period in the course of which the workplace management were able to

survey the young people’s abilities and their attitude to work in the practice.

As regards their fields of activity, the companies in the sample having a seat in

Hungary operate in a wide range of fields. As regards size, it was primarily large

companies that were included in the sample, which can partly be explained by

their presence at the job fair. In 83% of the companies interviewed, the number of

employees was above 250 people; in the case of 14%, it was between 50-250

people and in the case of 3% it was under 50. Considering ownership relations,

75% of the sample were foreign-owned, 9 % were of mixed ownership and 15%

Hungarian-owned.

The sample included companies of larger sizes the majority of which were foreign

owned or had mixed ownership, which assumingly had a relatively conscious

recruitment strategy. Findings only partly confirmed the latter assumption. The

recruitment practice of the companies interviewed is based on a competency-

based concept only in the case of less than half of the companies in the sample. In

the practice of only 38% of the companies interviewed do they use uniform

competency profiles for scopes of work or the company as a whole; 55% of them

conduct competency-based interviews and only 31% recruit graduate employees

by using an Assessment Centre. In the recruitment of graduates, the most decisive

recruitment tool applied is a job interview with the manager (84%); 58% of the

companies have applicants also fill in an aptitude test, while only 8% of the

companies require that written technical papers be submitted.

3 The Importance of Required Competencies

The HR representatives participating in the survey evaluated the importance of the

competencies listed with reference to the advertised positions on a 7 point Likert

scale. Table 1 shows the competencies in order of their importance perceived by

companies actively looking for graduates. Mean scores range between values of

6.39 and 3.47. (Table 1) In our analysis, we first present the results calculated for

the total sample, followed by the presentation of the differences between the two

fields of study.

The most important competency requirement among participating HR

representatives was problem-solving skill (M=6.39, SD=0.755). This is followed

by self-reliant and precise work performance (M=6.38, SD=0.825), cooperation

with others (M=6.23, SD=0.835), information acquisition and processing skills

(M=6.06, SD=0.920) and foreign language proficiency (M=6.01, SD=1.404), and


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finally, ethical behaviour (M=0.6, SD=1.206). Competencies ranked in the first

quartile according to importance serve current performance primarily. Companies

actively looking for graduates expressed that most important competency they

expected from graduates were self-reliant and efficient work performance ’from

the very first moment’. These competencies closely related to work performance

that determines the success of their recruitment.

The further competencies in the order of importance judged as important by

companies, i.e. commitment to further continuous learning, openness to changes,

flexibility, self-confidence and inner motivation, workload tolerance and

endurance, and oral communication skills can still be categorised as competencies

fostering independent work performance. However, this second quartile already

includes competencies that may serve future work performance. These are:

creativity, openness and flexibility, and information acquisition and processing

skills and the ability to manage changes. These competencies were less highly

ranked in previous research and were often in the less important part of the list.

This may suggest that in the sample including large companies primarily,

companies are further-sighted and their preferences include, in addition to the

criteria for present success, success factors for the future as well. Therefore, they

formulate much more complex requirements of higher education graduates.

According to the findings of the survey, companies ranked theoretical and

practical professional proficiency in the third quartile. This result could suggest

that there is less emphasis on professional proficiencies, but in fact these

requirements, too, had very high scores. Theoretical knowledge was ranked 5.65

and applied practical proficiency 5.28 on the 7 point scale. Thus, in fact results do

not reflect a ‘depreciation’ of professional proficiency but a growing role of soft

skills related to other work performance. In complex scopes of work requiring a

higher education degree, successful work performance is not guaranteed by high

professional proficiency in itself. Without personal and social competencies,

professional tasks cannot be successfully accomplished.

Among less important competencies, but still in the third quartile we also find IT

skills, tolerance, strategic thinking as well as decision making and risk taking

skills. The companies interviewed regard management and leadership skills and

multidisciplinary knowledge as the least important among the requirements placed

on graduates. The competencies ranked less important are primarily used in the

performance of duties related to managerial duties, which is proven by the other

competencies at the bottom of the ranking whose ranking is lower even in absolute

terms, like negotiation techniques, high-level writing skills and influencing and

supervisory skills. On the basis of the evaluation monotony tolerance does not

seem to be relevant for the recruitment of graduates, either.


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Table 1

The importance of respective competencies based on the OE research

(Scale of 7; 1- not important at all, 7 – extremely important; mean, standard deviation, N=111)

Source: authors’ calculations

economic

qualification

technical

qualification Total

M SD M SD M SD

Problem solving skills 6,38 ,721 6,40 ,777 6,39 ,755

Self-reliant, precise work

performance; initiative approach

6,65 ,484 6,24 ,927 6,38 ,825

Cooperation with others, working in

group

6,50 ,655 6,10 ,885 6,23 ,835

Information acquisition and

processing skills

6,36 ,798 5,92 ,946 6,06 ,920

High proficiency in at least one

foreign language

6,14 1,475 5,95 1,373 6,01 1,404

Commitment to ethical action 6,22 1,134 5,89 1,234 6,00 1,206

Commitment to further continuous

learning

5,81 1,175 6,08 1,057 5,99 1,100

Openness to changes, flexibility 6,16 ,764 5,89 1,061 5,98 ,977

Self-confidence and inner

motivation

6,14 1,110 5,88 1,079 5,96 1,091

Responsibility taking skills 6,08 1,064 5,88 1,260 5,95 1,197

Creative thinking skills 5,68 1,292 6,03 1,093 5,91 1,170

Workload tolerance and endurance 6,05 ,998 5,81 1,002 5,89 1,003

Oral communication skills 6,35 ,824 5,50 1,252 5,78 1,194

Ability of manage conflict 5,97 ,910 5,68 1,035 5,77 1,001

Ability of manage changes 5,78 ,976 5,63 1,173 5,68 1,108

High professional proficiency, up-

to-date theoretical knowledge

5,14 1,291 5,90 1,157 5,65 1,250

Proficiency in the use of modern IT 5,20 1,389 5,48 1,237 5,39 1,289

Awareness of the practical methods

applied

4,89 1,326 5,47 1,311 5,28 1,338

Tolerance of other (various) views 5,44 1,340 5,08 1,372 5,20 1,367

Decision-making skills 5,32 1,292 4,99 1,494 5,10 1,433

Strategic thinking skills 4,70 1,288 4,89 1,309 4,83 1,299

Risk-taking skills 4,78 1,377 4,68 1,433 4,72 1,409

Presentation skills 5,00 1,309 4,54 1,426 4,69 1,400

High-level writing skills 5,11 1,308 4,41 1,489 4,65 1,463

Application of learning techniques

and strategies

4,64 1,376 4,65 1,385 4,64 1,375

Tolerance of monotony 4,86 1,549 4,46 1,357 4,59 1,429

Application of negotiation

techniques

4,69 1,618 4,11 1,505 4,30 1,561


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Considering the findings, there are no clearly formulated competency

requirements related to learning. The application of learning techniques and

strategies is ranked 25th

in the list, which is even more surprising given the fact

that commitment to continuous learning was ranked 7th

in the order of preferences.

As regards competencies newly included in our competency list, ethical behaviour

had a high ranking, while the survey did not confirm any demand for

multidisciplinary knowledge.

On the basis of the research findings, there seem to emerge some remarkable

differences between competency requirements for technical and economic

positions. As the highlighted figures of Table 1 show there are higher

requirements as regard to oral and written communication as well as management

skills for economic positions as compared to technical jobs. At the same time,

technical fields pose higher requirements in professional and practical proficiency

and creative thinking. Self-reliance, endurance, cooperation skills, information

management, decision making and negotiation skills were ranked somewhat

higher for economic positions. Strategic thinking and IT skills, on the other hand,

proved somewhat more important for technical fields. Learning competences have

about the same place in the ranking of the two fields, while the mean values are a

little higher for technical graduates.

4 Structure of Competencies

The 30 items of competencies were subjected to principal component analysis

(PCA) using SPSS. Prior to performing PCA the suitability of data for factor

analysis was assessed. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling

adequacy value was 0.73, and the Barlett’s test of Sphericity reached statistical

significance, supporting the factorability of the correlation matrix. Using Kraiser’s

criterion principal component analysis revealed the presence of seven components

with eigenvalues exceeding 1, explaining 67% of total variance. To aid in the

interpretation of these components, Varimax rotation was performed. The rotated

solution is presented in Table 2.

Ability to influence and supervise

others

4,22 1,530 3,75 1,489 3,91 1,512

Management and leadership skills 4,03 1,647 3,44 1,500 3,64 1,568

Proficiency in several fields of

science

3,33 1,454 3,54 1,452 3,47 1,449


– 182 –

Table 2

Competency factors based on the OE research

Source: drafted by the authors

Competency

components Competencies

Factor weight

Adaptation Workload tolerance, endurance .781

competencies Commitment to ethical action .765

Responsibility taking skills .749

Ability of manage conflict .709

Risk taking skills .678

Self-confidence, inner motivation .663

Ability of manage changes .573

Communication Application of negotiation techniques .811

skills Presentation skills .775

Management and leadership skills .760

Ability to influence and supervise others .605

Oral communication skills .538

Proficiency in several fields of science .534

High-level writing skills .518

Openness Openness to changes, flexibility .690

Creative thinking skills .687

Commitment to further continuous learning .670

Tolerance of other (various) views .636

Application of learning techniques and

strategies

.557

Problem and Use of modern IT .704

task solving Problem solving skills .689

Information acquisition and processing skills .656

Self-reliant, precise work performance;

initiative approach

.493

Professional Awareness of the practical methods applied .825

proficiency

High professional proficiency, up-to-date

technical knowledge

.806

Cooperation High proficiency in at least one foreign

language

.849

Tolerance of monotony .661

Cooperation with others, working in group .520

Decision-

making

Decision-making skills .716

Strategic thinking skills .475

The first component, which can be regarded as the competency group of

Adaptation competencies includes workload tolerance, ethical behaviour,

responsibility taking, conflict management, risk taking, self-confidence and ability


– 183 –

to manage changes. This component could be interpreted as a requirement of

ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment, and to integrate into the

organization. The second component consists of competencies that represent

various Communication skills, since this component includes items as negotiation

techniques, presentation skills, management and leadership skills, ability to

influence and supervise others, oral and written communication skills and

proficiency in several fields of science. Openness to change, flexibility, tolerance,

creative thinking and learning competences are placed in the third component,

which we termed the component of Openness. The fourth component includes

competencies determining Problem-solving ability, like problem-solving skills,

information management skills, use of IT, self-reliant and precise work

performance and initiative approach. The fifth component is made up by just two

competencies, high-level professional proficiency and awareness of the practical

methods applied. We called this component Professional proficiency. Unlike in

different research findings, cooperation with others was ranked only to the sixth

component. Although proficiency in foreign languages and tolerance of monotony

“fit” this category to a lesser extent, considering the importance of social

competency we termed this factor Cooperation. The seventh component can be

described as a requirement for Decision-making competencies, and this is

associated with the competencies of decision-making skills and strategic thinking.

Figure 2

Means of indices calculated on the basis of the competency factors

in the case of economic and technical graduates, based on the OE research

Source: drafted by the authors

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

5,5

6

6,5

7

Adaptation skills

Communication skills

Openness Problem and task solving

Professional proficiency

Cooperation skills

Decision-making competencies

economic technical


– 184 –

In the interpretation of cooperation and learning competences we attained

interesting new findings compared to previous research. Cooperation and

competencies serving self-reliant work performance are usually interpreted as

competences built upon one another in groupings, while in our research the HR

representatives of the companies interviewed interpreted cooperation separately

from competencies determining individual performance. In our sample, learning

competences were clearly arranged in the factor of openness and creativity. This

may imply that the companies interviewed think in broader terms about learning

competences, which may also refer to the method and content of learning.

Learning is thus evaluated as a tool to future adaptation especially by the HR

representatives of large companies, in contrast to previous research findings where

respondents clearly relate learning to professional competencies.

In order to analyse the differences related to positions requiring technical or

economic qualifications, we created new variables (competency factor index) by

adding scores of items belonging to a given factor and then we calculated an

average. The averages of the competency factor indexes are shown in Figure 2.

The ANOVA analysis and the nonparametric test (Mann-Whitney U test)

performed revealed that in the case of five factors out of seven the expectations

towards graduates were very similar; however, there were clear differences as

regards leadership skills (F=5.610; p=0.02) and professional proficiency (F=6.542;

p=0.012). In the companies’ evaluations, the competencies of communication

skills proved more important for economic graduates, while professional

proficiency was judged more important in the technical field2.

Although general requirements and those related to specific scopes of work are

difficult to separate, the differences apparent from the findings may also suggest

that thinking in terms of general competencies is reflected in different ways in the

case of different professions. For an employee starting an engineer’s career,

professional proficiency and awareness of practical solutions are already essential

at the time of entry so that he can join the work of an engineers’ team; this basic

proficiency to be acquired at school is even necessary for the self-reliant

performance of subtasks. In the case of scopes of work requiring economic

qualifications it holds true certainly in the beginning and probably later as well

that the role of soft skills is more decisive for the successful performance of

professional tasks. Economic graduates are more likely to perform tasks requiring

complex communication skills (negotiation, presentation, coordination,

organization, supervision) and operational management tasks later on than their

colleagues working in technical fields. We would have found it interesting to

explore the differences in learning competences as well, but in our sample there

proved to be no difference between the two fields as regards this competence.

2 The variance analysis and nonparametric test performed on the original factor

variables confirmed the same correlation.


– 185 –

Conclusions

In our analysis we examined the requirements placed on graduates in the world of

work. Building on the data of secondary research, we examined workplace

adjustment in the course of the transition from school to work by presenting our

own research findings. We first compared the findings of research conducted in

the two most important target groups affected: of GVI 2011 examining the

requirements of the employer side and of DPR 2010 exploring the competency

requirements perceived by graduates. In our research, we primarily examined

corporate requirements placed on technical and economic graduates. In our sample

we addressed companies actively looking for graduates, assuming that these

companies had conscious requirements of entrants to the labour market.

Our results show that competencies serving present performance proved the most

important for companies, which implies that self-reliant and efficient work

performance is expected of graduates ‘from the first moment’. In the second

quartile of competencies we found different results compared to the GVI research.

In the GVI corporate sample of mixed composition, professional competencies

were listed in this quartile, while in our research based on a sample of primarily

large companies, competencies relevant for the future. However, in line with

previous research our survey confirmed that successful work performance is not

guaranteed by high professional proficiency in itself; without personal or social

competencies, professional tasks cannot be successfully performed. Examining the

co-occurrence of competencies based on employer responses in our research it can

be concluded that in the way of thinking of corporate representatives,

requirements are arranged very differently from the way the opinions of graduates

participating in the DPR2010 research were arranged. In the examination of

differences between the requirements of technical and economic graduates, it was

the comparison of group means per factor that generated interesting findings.

Similar results bring knowledge within a Czech context.3 Research by the National

Institute of Education of the CR focused on the requirements and expectations of

employers. In the responses of employers operating in the tertiary sectors lightly

prevailed answers preferring rather broad occupational skills than narrow and deep

professional skills of tertiary education graduates. In all monitored educational

categories employers in the tertiary sector attach the greatest importance to ability

to take responsibility, willingness to learn, read and understand the job

instructions and solve the problem. In view of the employers in the CR,

proficiency in foreign languages represents an attribute of the smallest importance.

[5] On the other hand, other research reports about that, “in comparison to other

European countries the employers across the Czech business sector were the most

likely highlight the importance of sector specific skills“. [24] [25]

3 Most of the studies carried out in the Czech Republic are mainly concerned with the

chances and position of the graduates in the labour market or with the economic

returns of education or with the assessment of adult competencies (e.g. research

project PIAAC) [24]


– 186 –

As a continuation of our research, we believe it would be interesting to examine

the effects of corporate size and fields of specialisation. Considering the difference

apparent between the GVI research and our sample of large companies the

question arises whether corporate size determines a different pattern of

competency requirements. When surveying the competency needs of the corporate

sector, requirements arising from the needs of the organisation or from the scope

of duties are difficult to separate in the responses. Analyses per field of

specialisation would make it possible to separate needs of various ‘origin’ and to

map other effects. The further examination of different preferences in professional

and leadership skills could reflect upon the different ‘competency management’

decisions in the respective fields or indicate different interpretations of the new

requirements of the changing economy. The examination of recruitment criteria

used in relation to graduates is not sufficient for providing information on

competencies to become useful in the future, either. It would be interesting to

examine how requirements placed on colleagues change later on, what learning

periods they are provided and what new skills they are expected to have several

years after their starting their jobs.

The differences between the factors explored in our research and those revealed in

the DPR research provide an insight into the respondents’ different thinking

schemes, indicating that the ways of thinking of fresh graduates and corporate

representatives in terms of the respective competency categories may be very

different. The differences revealed in our research on requirements towards

graduates of technical and economic specialization, may also imply that in the

case of different professions, the ways of thinking of participants in terms of

general competencies required for these different positions are reflected

differently. Competency-based thinking aims at formulating common

interpretations, thereby launching a continuous dialogue between players on issues

of requirements, learning and compliance with requirements. For researchers at

the same time, examining how the respective competencies are arranged in the

players’ views may be an important starting point for further research, since the

differences revealed in the findings of research mapping workplace requirements

may too root in different interpretations.

Revealing differences between various countries (e.g. post transformation) may be

another interesting way to continue our research and could serve exploring the

differences perceived between the requirements or may generate new results with

respect to the potentially decisive roles of corporate size or the fields of

specialisation.

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Documents

An Analysis of Employer Requirements of University Graduates